Dm_Combo

whats with the huge planet that looks like an eye?
well anyways short review:
Architecture 9/10
Texturing 4/10
Ambience 4/10
EntitySetup 8/10
Alot of copy+paste -5 points
In other words, you could of done better.
20/40 (2.5 stars)

You could add some different texturing to each one of the flying platforms to make it look a little better and not so much copy+pasty... maybe even add different prefabs to some of the platforms?

also lowering the floor by another 512 units would hurt, i was on the lowest of the platforms and when i fell i died within the first 128 units and it didnt look right.

What you could also add is a little fade that is triggered right before the trigger_hurt and applys only to the triggerer player to give it more realism.

...Also, the thing you said about most probably platforms being
-Green (the most probable)
-Yellow
-Blue
-Red ( the least )
is wrong. this is what i got (i spawned and teleported around 100 times total)

-Blue
-Green
-Yellow
-Red... in otherwords i got the gauss alot... and with the gauss i can gauss jump anywhere in the map giving me an rpg

**EDIT: this doesnt mean the map is bad, your progressing looking at the fact that your last one was 2 stars. tell you what, if you fix most of these isues i listed, ill give you 4 stars!

I think HLGenius is expecting a review from experienced guys like : Muzzleflash , TheHunter , Ant , PinguinBoy , Blitzkrieg ,aaron_da_killa ....you know these guys .

"tell you what, if you fix most of these isues i listed, ill give you 4 stars!"

OH , with that I'm on the floor .

Enough with my spam , I'll download the map .

[EDIT] Downloaded and played . The map has some fantastic feeling I can't describe . You shouldn't have put that ambience sound . It's not a xenish map . Add that sky texture and you can say it's surely not a xenish map .
One thing I loved is that you can shoot from distance in other places :
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/391/shootfromdistancest8.jpg
What does "dm_combo" has to do with the map . I don't understand
I'm not going to argue nothing about the arhitecture , but the map is quite empty if you understand me . Try adding some platforms or something in that free space you have .
So this is what I don't like : -the xen ambience
-empty space
-empty platforms
From a mediocre mapper , 4 stars

im an expierienced guy, and what i said is right.

Hey, I liked your suggestions. Especially the one from you Skals. I upload a new map with the updates done. And i'll keep the old one here.

By the way, What Should be the name of the map instead of Dm_Combo??

Ok, give me an hour or two. I got things to do first.

Ok.

This map has one major issue that should be taken care of: r_speeds.
R_speeds in this map r_crap, peeking over 2500. Thats too high for a DM map.

To fix, try texturing unseen faces with the BEVEL texture. The BEVEL texture acts like NULL, but it doesn't generate clipnodes. I know it sounds technical, but it may lower r_speeds.

Another way to lower r_speeds is to increase the texture scale of the concrete-ish texturee. This may look ugly at first but since most of the map makes use of a plain texture, it doesn't really matter.

I'd say try to get the r_speeds below 1500.

Now for the things i like:

Great entity work and architecture.
I found out that the teleporter teleported me to the red part most of the time, allowing me to get the gauss and gaussjump over the entire map.

So, overall its a good map, but the high r_speed make it kinda unplayable. Work on that and you got yourself a fun, fast-paced deathmatch map.

I actually really like this!
It's got a lot of charm considering how simple the design is. Very nice.
It is of course not without its flaws, though.

First and foremost - health and batteries. I never saw any during my admitedly short test. Very important in deathmatch.

Second, there is a real lack of cover. Maybe make the tops of the platforms more defendable around the sides and throw the crossbow in to get some fun sniping battles.

Next, your wise decision to put the more powerful guns at the rarer sites is made null by the fact that there are spawn points on those platforms. I don't really see a way of solving this.

Also, you could really make the teleporters a more impressive endeavour since they add so much to the gameplay mechanics. Get some loud teleporting noises, and maybe a laser show at the recieving end so that a player can see where his nemesis has teleported to in a 1v1 situation.

The worst aspect of the map was texturing. I mean it was awful.
The good lighting did well to make up for it, but it's just not enough. Get some variation in there and make each platform a clearly seperate location.

Lastly, i agree with the idea to make the fall considerably larger. There's no chance for Gauss-jumpers to save themselves if they fall off the side at the moment since they die almost instantly.

Definately on the right track. I won't rate until you finish your new version =]

Thanks for the suggestions,reviews and comments guys! I know now what to improve on. Like the R_speeds, Texturing, And most of all the gameplay?
Thank again!

EDIT: Maybe I Could just Upload the new one and leaving the old one here? Coz I like to see onto my history (my early maps) from time to time. And I still like to keep the lengthy reviews...

go on hl genius, fix jer map!

Upload a new map and leave this here .

Fix any obvious problems and this'll definitely be up for playtest on the HLDM server. :>

YAY!
I am going to quicken up the pace...

Oh boy , I must install Steam somehow ... X( I want to play on the HLDM server

Muzzleflash , you talked about r_speeds . Maybe there was a standar 800 w_poly a few years ago , but most of us a have a good piece of modern technology . At least , I do . Shouldn't this standard be raised to , let's say ... about 1500 w_poly ?
It surely doesn't affect the overrall performance . Well , maybe it causes LAG ....

"Oh boy , I must install Steam somehow"

yeah, because it's really tricky :/

Oups I wanted to say Steam HL because I already have a steam account .

Try to keep the r_speeds below 1500 and you'll be fine.

Playtested on the server today. Nothing too impressive.

Texturing was most lacking with pretty much the exact same concrete slapped on everything.

Plays like a killbox with very little to zero cover. The fact that most powerful guns are very easy to reach doesn't help as well.

Architecture, even if decent, was clearly copy-pasted all over, which deteriorated the final look.

Lighting was pretty boring, though I suppose you're pretty limited in a map with virtually one large area.

You could do way better than that.

Most of the things you say are true daub but 2 stars?!

+Architecture
+lighting
+sprite effects
+neat sky
+sounds pretty good

/Decent small detailing but there could have been more as well props

-textures a bit bland, some stretching as well--'face' is your friend!
-high wpolys

I agree with what muzz said about scaling down the textures to lower your r_speeds and i agree with daubster/muzz that that crete texture is pretty boring. Also agree with daub copy/pasting the same platform 4 times is a bit of a mistake. different platforms would have been nice or at the very least differently textured platforms would have helped. Hunter's advice on gameplay sounds pretty good too.

3.5 stars rounds up to 4 since i liked many key parts of the map. It needs work but i still really liked it.

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